PHILIPSBURG--President of the Dutch St. Maarten United Bus Drivers Association (DSUBA) Alexis Williams has announced that elections for the new board of the Association will take place on April 3, at the Philipsburg Library from 2:00pm to 5:00pm. The election will see the change of the Association’s entire board, and candidates are currently being requested to come forward. The final general membership meeting will take place on Tuesday March 22, also at the library.
Williams will not be seeing re-election due to many issues plaguing him during his term. Williams’ focus right now is making sure that all bus drivers comply with the law, place the tariffs in visible locations for the clients and also place a sign in their bus stating “pay as you enter” as soon as possible.
“We have been getting a lot of interest from different bus drivers about the board and we have several positions available. President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary are all up for grabs and we encourage bus drivers to come to the general meeting next week to postulate themselves for the available positions,” he said.
President of DSUBA said that it is time to hand over the mandate and he thanked all persons who cooperated with him for the past two years. Williams would stay on as advisor if he is asked by the general membership, which consists of 300 bus drivers. “Bus drivers have been convincing me not to completely give up and not run, it is for this reason I decided to still run for the position of treasurer. I have been involved with the business of the bus drivers for some time now and there is much work to be done and I think I can offer my services to the drivers,” said Williams.
The Association is calling on all operators to get involved with organizing their sector, by taking part in board activities. The membership meeting next week will permit candidates to speak with the board members and allow them to get a feel of what every candidate has to offer.
Williams hopes with this election, bus drivers can be unified and have one voice. “There is no control and every time we get promises from government, they either change or they don’t do anything about the changes. We as a board had plans for the industry, but cooperation between all bus drivers is lacking,” said Williams.
